Another prominent storyteller was ‘Amr Ibn al-Aas.

Another prominent storyteller was ‘Amr Ibn al-Aas.[^4] For example, ‘Amr Ibn al-Aas narrates that when Lady Aishah was asked who was the closest person to the heart of the Prophet, she said, “My father.” When asked who else, she said, “‘Umar,” and then after him, she named other people.[^5] However, Lady Aishah had always maintained that amongst men, the closest person to the Prophet was ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib, and that amongst the women it was his daughter, Lady Fatima al-Zahra.[^6] Sunni scholars who carefully examine the sahih books would automatically question the authenticity of some of the problematic hadith.

Of course, had the Bani Umayyah not begun the practice of forging their own hadith, then the entire science of hadith classification may never have developed. Nevertheless, since they did, the science of hadith classification was developed.

One of the primary principles, which both Sunni and Shi’a scholars use in the science of hadith, is that if one narrator in a chain of narrators is unreliable then all of his hadiths are meaningless.[^7] In this case, why did the fables of Abu Huraira, and those that insulted the Prophet, remain in the sahih books? By their own inclusion of a few shortsighted narrators, these false and fabricated hadiths affected Muslim thought forever.

Hadith of the “Ten People Guaranteed Paradise” One of the most infamous hadith a fabrication is referred to as, “Ten People Guaranteed Paradise ( al-Asharah Mubashsharah bil-Jannah ).” According to this hadith the “ten people guaranteed Paradise” are: (1) Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Qahafah (2) ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab (3) ‘Uthman Ibn al-Affan (4) Talha Ibn Ubaydillah (5) Zubayr Ibn al-Awam (6) Abd al-Rahman Ibn Auf (7) Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas (8) Abdullah Ibn Masoud (9) Abu Obaydah Ibn al-Jarrah and (10) ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib.

Collectively granting them all paradise puts us in a great dilemma because many of these individuals are known for their questionable character. To begin with, only al-Tirmidhi includes this hadith, whereas al-Bukhari, al-Muslim, and al-Dhahabi all reject it.[^8] It behooves us to ask why the other prominent hadith recorders did not mention this hadith, since being guaranteed Paradise assures that their course of life was traveled correctly.

Then who narrated this “hadith?” Near the top of the chain of narrators lies Sa’ed Ibn Zayd, the son-in-law of the second caliph - a man who refused to pay allegiance to Imam ‘Ali during his caliphate.